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a presumption of innocence, in practice defendants frequently must prove their innocence. Both defendants and prosecutors have the right of appeal, and most criminal cases are appealed, according to legal |
sources. In appeals neither defendants nor witnesses appear before the court; the court merely reviews the protocol and other documents from the lower court's trial. Appeals rarely result in reversals |
of verdicts. In criminal cases, the prosecution has the right to appeal an acquittal for retrial to a higher court on the same charge. On July 22, according to the |
OSCE's AMG, the well-known lawyer, journalist, human rights activist, and 13th Supreme Soviet deputy Valeri Shchukin was detained illegally in a court building while attempting to attend the trial of |
Andrei Klimov (see Section 1.d.). The trial proceedings were open to the public. In front of OSCE observers and acting without any legal basis or written order, militia officers removed |
Shchukin from the building by force. Shchukin summarily was given a 15-day prison sentence for "petty hooliganism" by a judge who, by way of explanation to one of the OSCE |
officers, stated that the action was taken because Shchukin was "not normal." Shchukin subsequently was released after serving 7 days of the sentence. Antigovernment protestors arrested after demonstrations were subjected |
to assembly line style trials, sometimes without the right to counsel or the opportunity to present evidence or call witnesses. On February 23, political prisoner and BNF youth front member |
Aleksei Shidlovskiy was released from prison 2 days prior to the conclusion of one year of an 18-month sentence for "malicious hooliganism with extreme cynicism" in a hard-regime labor camp. |
The charges stemmed from his alleged spray painting of antipresidential slogans in August 1997. Despite his youth (Shidlovskiy turned 19 while in detention) and the nonviolent nature of the charges, |
Shidlovskiy was denied release pending trial. During the trial, Shidlovskiy and Vadim Labkovicyh, another teenage defendant in the case, were held in a guarded cage as if they were dangerous |
criminals. A representative of Human Rights Watch who observed the trial in February 1998 referred to it as an "absurd parody of criminal justice and a grotesque show trial aimed |
at intimidating young people from expressing their opposition to the current regime." The sentence of Labkovich, who also was held for 6 months in pretrial detention, was suspended and no |
further action has been taken against him. The prolonged and harsh pretrial detention, the punitive use of what apparently was a relatively minor charge, and the disproportionate nature of the |
sentences handed down to Shidlovskiy and Labkovich were both excessive and reminiscent of Soviet-era practices (see Section 1.c.). Vladimir Kudinov was convicted in 1997 and sentenced to 7 years in |
prison and full confiscation of property for allegedly bribing a police officer. He is considered by many opposition activists and human rights observers to be a victim of political persecution. |
Prior to his arrest, Kudinov was an active and vocal critic of President Lukashenko. Government authorities first began to harass Kudinov in 1995 during his campaign for a seat in |
the Supreme Soviet. In 1996 Kudinov signed an impeachment petition against Lukashenko. His conviction and lengthy sentence appear to fit a government pattern of using charges of alleged economic related |
crimes to silence and intimidate critics. As part of a general presidential amnesty, Kudinov's sentence was reduced by 1 year in January. f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or |
Correspondence The Constitution provides for protection against illegal interference in a citizen's personal life, including invasion of privacy, telephone, and other communications. However, the Government does not respect these rights |
in practice. Although the inviolability of the home also is provided for by the Constitution, which states that, "no one shall have the right to enter, without legal reason, the |
dwelling and other legal property of a citizen against such a citizen's will," in practice, government monitoring of residences, telephones, and computers continued unabated. The KGB is widely believed to |
enter homes without warrants, conduct unauthorized searches, and read mail. Political, human rights, and other NGO's believe that their conversations and correspondence are monitored routinely by the security services. Some |
opposition figures have reported a reluctance to visit some foreign embassies due to fear of reprisal. Nearly all opposition political figures assume that the Government monitors their activities and conversations. |
The Lukashenko Government did nothing to refute these assumptions. Militia officers assigned to stand outside diplomatic missions are known to keep records of visits by political opposition leaders. In addition |
even government officials do not appear to be exempt from monitoring. On February 12, militia in Gomel, claiming a bomb threat in the building, conducted an illegal search of the |
local office of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, a human rights NGO. No bomb was found, but the militia officers seized 14,000 leaflets concerning the recently declared opposition presidential election initiative. |
On April 26, just short of a month after his arrest on charges of alleged financial impropriety, the office of former Prime Minister Mikhail Chigir was broken into. A computer |
containing data related to an opposition political campaign in which Chigir was participating was stolen, along with other equipment. Opposition activists allege that, in view of the almost certain continual |
government surveillance of the office, government security officials likely were behind the incident. On May 11, government security officers in Minsk used the pretext of a bomb threat to search |
the offices of the Francisak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society (BLS). The involvement of the BLS in an ongoing opposition presidential election initiative suggests a political motive for the incident. On |
May 14, Ministry of Interior officers searched the Minsk office of Irex/Promedia, an international organization involved in the implementation of projects to strengthen independent newspapers, without legal authorization. The local |
head of the organization, her daughter, and a staff member were questioned by these officers over a period of several hours. The OSCE later protested the incident with government authorities. |
On September 11 and October 28, under the pretext of looking for the offices of an independent newspaper that tax inspectors were trying to shut down, police officers attempted to |
search the headquarters of the opposition United Civic Party in Minsk without a warrant. The KGB, MVD, and certain border guard detachments have the right to request permission to install |
wiretaps, but under the law must obtain a prosecutor's permission before installation. The Presidential Guard (or security service) formed in 1995 reportedly conducted surveillance activities of the President's political opponents. |
There is no judicial or legislative oversight of the Presidential Guard's budget or activities, and the executive branch repeatedly has thwarted attempts to exercise such oversight. In June the National |
Assembly revised the administrative offenses code to increase the penalties for those who obstruct KGB officers. For example, a new article prohibits preventing KGB officers from entering the premises of |
a company, establishment or organization, and for failing to allow audits or checks to be made, as well as for unjustified restriction or refusal to provide information, including access to |
company information systems and data bases. In early 1997, the Ministry of Communications renegotiated contracts for supplying telephone service. The new contracts forbid subscribers from using telephone communications for purposes |
that run counter to state interests and public order. The Ministry has the right to terminate telephone service to those who breach this provision. Presidential decree number 218, issued in |
March 1997, prohibits the import and export of printed, audio, and visual information that could "damage" the economic and political interests of the country (see Section 2.a.). In October security |
forces searching for his father detained the young son of a newspaper editor (see Section 1.d.). On November 23, President Lukashenko signed decree number 40, which allowed the Government to |
nationalize the property of any individual if the President determines that the individual has caused financial damage to the State. Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including: a. Freedom of |
Speech and Press The Constitution provides for freedom of speech, as well as the freedom to receive, retain, and disseminate information; however, the Government restricts these rights in practice. The |
executive branch continued its suppression of freedom of speech. Despite the constitutional provisions, a 1998 government decree limited citizens' right to express their opinions. As part of an overall crackdown |
on opposition activity, the Government stepped up its campaign of harassment against the independent media. Although the Constitution prohibits a monopoly of mass media, the Government also continued to restrict |
severely the right to a free press through near-monopolies on the means of production and on national level broadcast media and by denying accreditation of journalists critical of the regime. |
The Government also kept up economic pressure on the independent media by pressuring advertisers to withdraw advertisements, as well as through fines and other administrative harassment. Employees at some state-run |
enterprises are discouraged from subscribing to independent newspapers and journals. In 1996 President Lukashenko signed a decree ordering that all editors in chief of state-supported newspapers would henceforth be official |
state employees and would become members of the appropriate local level government council. Another decree granted the Ministry of Press the authority to assign graduates of state supported journalism schools |
to work in state-owned media organizations as a means of payment for their schooling. These decrees remain in effect. Presidential decree number 5, issued in 1997, prohibits a range of |
broadly defined activities and limits freedom of expression. For example, the decree prohibits individuals from carrying placards or flags bearing emblems that are not registered officially with the State, as |
well as "emblems, symbols, and posters whose content is intended to harm the State and public order, rights, and legal interests of the citizens." The decree also bans activities that |
are "humiliating to the dignity and honor of the executive persons of state bodies." On March 2, government authorities in the Lenin region of Grodno launched an investigation of the |
activities of cartoonist Alexsei Surov on suspicion of insulting the honor and dignity of high-ranking government officials. The investigation was opened on the basis of a small booklet of political |
cartoons about President Lukashenko by Surov. Surov's workplace at the Grodno puppet theater also was searched. A local prosecutor reportedly later decided to close the case. On October 14, police |
officers in Minsk detained for 5 hours a 13 year old boy, Roman Shkor, who was handing out leaflets advertising an upcoming opposition demonstration. The leaflets were confiscated. On November |
7, police officers in the town of Borisov briefly detained Alesya Yasyuk, a member of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (BDSP), after she displayed at a public event the traditional |
white-red-white national flag now associated with the opposition. The Defamation Law makes no distinction between private and public persons for the purposes of lawsuits for defamation of character. A public |
figure who has been criticized for poor performance in office may ask the public prosecutor to sue the newspaper that printed the criticism. In June 1998, the lower house of |
the National Assembly approved a bill that stipulated that public insults or libel against the President could be punished by up to 4 years in prison, 2 years in a |
labor camp, or a large fine. However, there were no reports that anyone has been arrested or charged subsequently for this offense, and the bill apparently was devised principally as |
a means of intimidation. In 1997 the Council of Ministers issued a decree that prohibited and restricted the movement of goods across customs borders. The decree specifically prohibited the import |
and export of printed, audio, and video materials, or other news media containing information that could damage the economic and political interests of the country. Some bulletins affiliated with the |
opposition published outside of the country appeared to be targeted by the decree, and there were a number of incidents in 1997-98 in which customs officials confiscated opposition materials at |
the country's borders. In January 1998, more stringent regulatory provisions, introduced by amendments to the Law on Press and Other Mass Media that were adopted by the Council of the |
Republic in December 1997, went into effect. The new regulatory provisions grant greater authority to the Government to ban and censor critical reporting. For example the State Committee on the |
Press was given authority to suspend for 3 months publication of periodicals or newspapers without a court ruling. In December 1998, new regulations went into effect restricting the distribution of |
legal information to specially licensed media. The regulations required the independent media that publish legal acts to apply for licenses from a commission under the Ministry of Justice; several independent |
informational bulletins subsequently were denied licenses. On December 17, President Lukashenko signed new amendments to the law "On Press and Other Media." The amendments ban the media from disseminating information |
on behalf of political parties, trade unions, and NGO's that are not registered with the Ministry of Justice. Independent newspapers are widely available in Minsk, but outside of the capital |
most towns carry only local newspapers, only some of which are independent. On February 17, the State Committee on the Press officially warned six independent newspapers (Naviny, Narodnaya Volya, Belorusskaya |
Delovaya Gazeta, Imya, Zhoda, and Pahonya) that they risked closure if they continued to publish information about an opposition presidential election initiative aimed at drawing attention to the approaching end |
of Lukashenko's 5-year legal presidential term. Mikhail Podgainy, the head of the State Committee on the Press, announced publicly that the newspapers would be shut if they ignored the warning. |
On May 13, the Supreme Economic Court dismissed appeals filed by the independent newspapers that there were no grounds on which the State Committee on the Press could issue such |
an official warning. On May 26, the State Committee on the Press issued its second warning to Naviny after it published an article entitled "Carbuncules of Lawfulness" for which the |
newspaper was accused of "inciting social discord and defaming police officers." The Supreme Economic Court upheld the warning on August 26, following an appeal by Naviny. On June 24, the |
State Committee on the Press issued its second warning to Imya for an article the newspaper published relating to President Lukashenko. Under the December 1997 amendments to the Law on |
Press and Other Media, newspapers can be banned if two warnings are issued. The Committee to Protect Journalists and Article 19, another international NGO, both sent open letters to the |
Government expressing concern about the possible closure of independent newspapers. In addition to warnings from the State Committee on the Press, the judiciary and security services also were used to |
exert pressure on the independent media. For example on July 26, Judge Nadezhda Chmara, the presiding judge in the trial of former state farm director Staravoitov (see Section 1.d.), won |
a libel suit against Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta. Chmara claimed that the newspaper in one of its articles on the case had accused her indirectly of professional misconduct. Belorusskya Delovaya Gazeta |
was ordered to print a retraction and to pay the judge an unprecedented fine of approximately $6,550 (or 2 billion rubles at the then official rate). The ruling is currently |
under appeal by the newspaper. The ruling was appealed by the newspaper. On September 24, the newspaper Naviny lost a libel suit brought against it by National Security Council Chairman |
Viktor Sheiman for an article that had implied that Sheiman possessed property valued beyond what his official salary could provide. Sheiman apparently was ordered to file the lawsuit during a |
September 16 meeting with President Lukashenko. The newspaper and one of its reporters were ordered to pay a combined fine of approximately $30,000 (10 billion rubles at the then official |
rate). The unprecedented size of the fine forced Naviny, which published its last issue on September 29, into bankruptcy. Newsprint owned by the paper was confiscated by government authorities, and |
its bank account was frozen. On October 26, tax officials in Minsk inventoried the personal property of Naviny editor Pavel Zhuk. On November 8, a Minsk city court upheld the |
libel judgement, which had been appealed by Naviny. On September 30, the Belarusian State Committee on the Press annulled the registration certificates of nine independent newspapers and periodicals, including a |
successor newspaper to Naviny, on the pretext that they had not submitted documentary approval of their office addresses. The registration certificates later were renewed on November 4. On March 2, |
government security officials raided the offices of the independent newspaper Pahonya in Grodno and confiscated material related to the opposition's May 16 presidential election initiative. On April 7, KGB officers |
detained and questioned Naviny journalist Aleh Hruzdzilovich for several hours. Hruzdzilovich recently had written an article entitled, "A Secret Plan Against the Opposition," based on a reportedly confidential government document |
outlining methods to be used to crack down on the opposition. On July 22, militia officers and government prosecutors searched the offices of Imya, confiscated computer equipment, and briefly detained |
for questioning chief editor Irina Khalip. A local prosecutor's office in Minsk recently had begun an investigation into a criminal case of libel against the newspaper for an article in |
which it detailed infighting and high level corruption within the Government. In a letter sent to the Minister of Justice, the Paris-based human rights NGO Reporters Sans Frontieres protested the |
judicial harassment of Khalip. Also in July, OSCE Freedom of Media representative Freimunt Duve issued a public statement protesting reported threats by government security officers against Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta chief |
editor Piotr Martsev, whose paper also had published a series of articles detailing government corruption and infighting. On October 4, Duve sent a letter of complaint to the Foreign Minister |
concerning the Government's "continued attempts to stifle freedom of expression." On November 4, two independent journalists were barred from attending a government conference on health care issues held at Brest |
regional executive committee offices. However, state media representatives were permitted to cover the event. A spokesperson for the Brest regional executive committee explained that, in addition to accreditation, journalists were |
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